Related Links

CLEVELAND -- Cleveland police have charged a suspect in the 1984 murder of teenager Gloria Pointer.

Prosecutor Tim McGinty says the suspect is a 58-year-old convicted rapist and was linked to the case through DNA tests. He has been identified as Hernandez Warren and charged with aggravated murder.

Warren is scheduled for arraignment on May 16.

According to McGinty, Warren lived in the same neighborhood as the Pointer family but was never considered a suspect, to his knowledge, until now.

The case will be bound over to a grand jury at which point the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor is expected to seek additional charges.

A task force of officers took Warren into custody at his home in Collinwood on Monday.

A search of records shows Warren has served time in prison previously, most recently released on parole in the early 2000s after serving time for rape.

Gloria,14, was abducted, raped and murdered on her way to school in December 1984. She died of blunt force trauma.

It was one of several kidnappings and murders of teen-age girls in late 1984 on Cleveland's East Side.

Gloria's mother, Yvonne Pointer, has in the decades since her daughter's death become an advocate for crime victims and community activist. She thanked law enforcement for continuing to investigate her daughter's case and bring about an arrest.

For families of missing children or victims of unsolved homicides she had this message, "Please don't give up. Keep hope alive. There is a light at the end of the tunnel."